Page 34 of Maddy's Justice

“Melanie Stewart?” Connie quietly asked to which Marc nodded his head.

“What did the judge do?” Melanie asked.

“Thirty-six months in prison suspended thirty months pending participation and completion of the Drug Court program. He’s lucky he has a driver’s license and a job. He does have six months of jail time to do now, but he got home monitoring.”

“He’s not gonna like it, Melanie. It takes a year and he has to straighten out and clean up his act. First thing is to complete his treatment program. Then he follows with weekly meetings with a probation officer, constant urine, and breath tests, probably once or twice a week. He has to appear a couple times a month in court.”

“I don’t think he’ll do this,” Melanie said with a quiet sigh.

“Then he goes to prison with credit for time served,” Marc replied. “Hey, don’t give up on him. I’ve had a few of these cases in both Hennepin and Dakota County. I’ve had some I didn’t think would make it for a month and they ended up sober and healthy. You never know.”

“Well, okay,” Melanie said. “That helps.”

“Connie went to a discovery conference today with Lori Quinn on your firm’s case. She’ll call you in a while to update you. She and I need to talk about it, now.”

“Why don’t you put me on speaker?” Melanie asked.

Marc asked Connie this question who candidly replied loud enough for Melanie to hear her, “No, we need to talk first. I’ll call her later.”

“Did you get that? Nothing personal,” Marc said.

“I understand. Well, thanks, Marc, for helping Dylan.”

“He’s got a chance to get help, clean up and stay out of jail. It’s up to him,” Marc said.

“We got bigger problems,” Connie said when Marc ended the phone call. “There’s some strange shit going on at that firm.”

“So, how did the discovery conference go?” Marc asked.

“Are you listening to me?” Connie asked.

“Nope. It sounds like you’re bringing more problems and I’m not sure I want to know what they are.”

“You don’t, but I have to tell you anyway,” Connie replied. “I met with Lori Quinn and she had two of the women there. Two of the plaintiffs.”

“Is that normal?”

“No, normally this is a meeting to set up a discovery schedule between the lawyers. In fact, it’s usually done over the phone. The meeting was Lori’s idea and that’s why I wanted you there.”

Marc gave her a funny look at the mention of him being there then waved it off and said, “Okay, who were the two women?”

“Stephanie Chapple and Julie Hall. We had a little off-the-record chat.”

“About?”

“Well, they’re not sure. Just some rumors. Whispers about the upper echelon being involved in some shady dealings with some shady people.”

“And this has what to do with our case?” Marc asked.

“Nothing, really,” Connie admitted.

“Anything admissible?”

“No, nothing.”

“Then we ignore it. We represent our clients for what we were hired to do,” Marc said. “And…”

“You’re starting to sound like a lawyer,” Connie grumbled.

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